The present invention relates to medical imaging apparatus and method, and particularly to tomography utilizing radar pulses.
A variety of medical imaging modalities are known and include nuclear magnetic resonance, ultra-sound, sonography, positron emission, digital subtraction angiography, and x-rays. Computed tomography is a well-known method for manipulating data to produce medical images. For example, ultra-sound, positron emission, and X-rays may utilize computed tomography techniques to produce images for diagnosis. A recent article, "III Imaging With Photons", by Edward Rubenstein, appearing in the December, 1988, edition of CURRENT TRENDS IN MEDICINE, explains several of these imaging methods and is incorporated herein by reference.
However, all known medical imaging modalities are considered to be either too expensive or may be at least somewhat harmful to the patient. For example, a nuclear magnetic resonance machine may cost $2.5 million and require almost one-thousand dollars to produce an image. On the other hand, the use of X-rays is disadvantageous in that repeated use may result in harm to the patient.
Furthermore, known imaging techniques can create an image by passing energy through the patient to produce a projected image or a cross-sectional image of the patient. The power required to pass certain types of energy and energized particles through a patient is expensive to produce and may cause harm to patient tissue.
Thus, the medical practitioner often is presented with the dilemma of choosing between the desire to perform a thorough diagnosis and excessive cost or patient harm resulting from such thorough diagnosis. In fact, medical insurance companies are demanding greater use of medical imaging equipment, while patients are being informed by the media and various consumer advocates that increased use of, for example, X-rays is unnecessary and harmful. Therefore, medical personnel are placed in the difficult position of trying to satisfy both their patient's needs and their insurer's requirements.
Accordingly, what is needed is a simple, fast, low-cost medical imaging technique which causes no harm to the patient.
It is known that radio waves will penetrate human tissue, and that radio wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation are considered non-ionizing, thus causing no radiation damage. For example, current technologies employ short-wave and microwave radiation to treat deep muscle injury with controlled heat. No tissue damage occurs even when the radio waves are applied steadily for periods of up to 30 minutes. U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) guidelines for use of such modalities are currently available. Furthermore, radar technology is relatively well developed in military and civilian aviation. In addition, the proliferation of radar guns and related equipment in traffic enforcement is well-known.
Radar uses a wavelength of several meters to several millimeters. Radar can also be focused into more concentrated beams than X-rays. In addition, sensitive radar receivers are available which can image an object at great distances registering a small fraction of the radiated energy. Radar also produces an image by reflecting energy from an object, thus requiring less power and producing less tissue damage in the patient than known techniques. Thus, it appears that radar signals may be useful in medical imaging.